Traygon

I actually can’t believe I have never touched this on my blog but have posted my insight to this software elsewhere, seems bizarre to be frank! Anyway, Invision Power Board (or IPB), the third full instalment milestone for the forum software giant actively developed by Invision Power Services. I have been a customer of theirs for a good few years now and have been on the platform since the good ol’ InvisionFree days, which ran on version 1.3. Jumping from strength to strength, IPB has been at the headlines for incorporating features not seen in other software and setting standards such as the social profiles (which arrived in version two) to allow Administrators to bring the community closer and have a more open userbase.

Being set in the light as the main competitor to vBulletin, these two platforms have had fan boys battling it out on numerous boards for around three thousand years and still none have been proven right or wrong. I just want to get it out in the open that I am not a vBulletin fan, nor am I an IPB fan boy. I simply don’t like the vBulletin model on raising prices and the software is bare ugly.

The first thing that brought me over to IPB from MyBB and phpBB was the sheer scale of the software, the Administration Panel is like a separate program in itself, the social profiles look impressive with the custom fields you can easily create and comments can be posted, profile photos uploaded, plus an ‘About Me’ section is included. With the software looking very sexy even on it’s default template, the designers throwing out templates are incredibly talented and what was (and still is) being produced is to a high standard. The main hub I use for all my IPB skin purchases (they are doing vBulletin now too) is SkinBox.

Along with some great designs available for use, you have a whole new plugin system built into the newest version. Hooks for your sidebar and applications to increase functionality are just two examples of how you can customize the board easily with less file edits then before. With extending the board, upgrading and even the installation are both painless and simple to accommodate newer, less experienced Administrators.

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Links, links, links! Some Administrators are starting to feel a craze for the special ‘page rank’, what they don’t realize is, that by focusing too much on trying to get links, they are neglecting their community, their content, their rankings and are ultimately killing their forum in the process. You need not worry about your page rank, most visitors don’t even consider it (actually, most targeted audience probably haven’t got a toolbar displaying it nor know what it actually means), it will come after time anyway.

If you have focused on PR ranks too much or are just getting a grasp with your community (maybe a good 50 posts a day) then you might start to think about submitting your site to the various directories around the Internet. If so, fantastic!

What is a directory?

Web directories are simply a way of harvesting links to other places on the web and categorizing them for visitors. Do not mistake directories for search engines, they are two completely different minds. Most (if not all) directories are humanly edited, they have one to a few reviewers per section and are dedicated in taking a look at each submission to see if the site is fit for addition into the index of sites.

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I had a fantastic run with Ubuntu 9.10 on my Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo v5535 laptop, I think it lasted around about 8 months, which is fantastic considering I was re-installing operating systems on this machine nearly weekly. The problems started to occur though, not all down to Ubuntu itself, but mainly for the lack of support for the model I purchased just over a year ago.

Graphics

So the SiS Mirage 3+ IGP works to an extent, I have full 2D support and can have my display extended to the native 1280×800. I’m a happy bunny, but you always want your hardware to perform as well as it can. Having fully enabled Aero on Windows 7 and not being able to even enable moderate effects in Ubuntu is just wrong, of course this is the fault of SiS and their pathetic contract with Microsoft. Did I mention that they have actually made a 3D graphics driver for Linux? Will they release the source code? No. Pointless? Absolutely.

Networking

Wireless works out-the-box, along with the ethernet port. Things go fine until you wish to switch between the ethernet cable and your wireless a few times, or maybe change wired networks to perform multiple tasks. After around 10-20 changes, the ethernet stops working altogether, it can’t establish a connection at all. I have tried reseting the network, tried different cables and networks but it just doesn’t want to play along. Therefore a complete system restart is required, waste of both time and energy.

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First off, lets crack on with the fantastic news of me finally starting to actually be able to cope without being in constant pain with this bloody tonsillitis. Still fighting it off but should be there by the end of tomorrow, better be anyway. Oh, to add to that cool, awesome and fantastic news, I haven’t even had any anti-biotics, so stick that in your pipes and smoke it all you “well I’ve had it too!” people!

Now onto pressing matters, I was enjoying the Brits (while drinking my hot cup of tea focusing on the pain in my throat) and Cheryl Cole started to perform. I got mildly excited all of a sudden, she was miming. Not only was she miming, but she was out-of-sync miming! I don’t know what is worse, miming while most (if not all) other performers sang live or mimed in time, or actually not having the ability to mime properly. Maybe both in special Cheryl’s case!

If you didn’t watch the Brit Awards this evening, or happened to miss her terrible performance (shame on you!), then here is a small clip of it:

Cheryl Cole mime fail on Brit Awards 2010

I can’t stand the girl, she is the worst role model, she can barely sing (or mime), she is a terrible excuse for a talent judge as she was built and shaped from one of those programs and she just knows how to get on my nerves every time she is on my screen. I’m glad tonight happened, hopefully she will watch it and think “Shit, I was really good singing live!”, sorry darling, I think Alisha and Florence both out did you.

Credit for the video goes to YouTube user TheFowlyetti, who uploaded the file. I hosted it here just in-case they take it down for violation of terms etc. which always seems to happen when I embed off that law-binded site.

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Not heard of Jusdson Liapply? An inspiring comedian, he has one of the most watched videos on YouTube. Evolution of dance, a funny outlook on the ages of dance to music that has changed and altered in the past years. If you haven’t seen the video than you must watch it below, it has to be one of the best 6 minutes on the video monster site.

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I used to enjoy having my blog posts here synchronized with my notes tab on my FaceBook profile, however I stopped it a while ago as it seemed to post duplicates for some reason. I wasn’t really blogging that much anyway. So yesturday I thought “Fuck it, why not?” and turned it back onto my feed, I was eagerly awaiting a hundred posts being posted on my profile and my news feed (which could possibly annoy a few people, even better), it worked and with no duplicates.

Thinking that it is all fine and working as it should, I went and posted a new blog post. Seeing how FaceBook state that they check every few hours for new updates on your external blog I was checking back to see if it synchronized. It hadn’t, a day went by and still no latest post update, so is it just ignoring my blog altogether? I shall see by today if it has put my previous post up, nice to know how they change everything every now and then but can’t get simple features working correctly.

Along with the above problem, the Android application that FaceBook have placed on the marketplace is actually terrible. It doesn’t even have mail features so half the links you click in either notifications within the application itself or from emails go through your browser! I know many could say “Well you should have stuck with the iPhone!”, well I don’t want to and I’m happy with my new phone so no thanks. Considering that the MySpace application is more feature rich, it doesn’t make sense why the FaceBook team is behind.

They really do need to sort these little irritating problems out.

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